Immigration Reform
The last time Congress updated our legal immigration system was November 1990, one month before the World Wide Web went online. We are long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform.
Through immigration reform, we can provide noncitizens with a system of justice that provides due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Because it can be a contentious and wide-ranging issue, we aim to provide advocates with facts and work to move bipartisan solutions forward. Read more about topics like legalization for undocumented immigrants and border security below.
Senators Reintroduce the DREAM Act
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senators Richard Durbin, Harry Reid, and Robert Menendez re-introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Last fall, the DREAM Act passed the House of Representatives, and garnered the support of a majority in the Senate, but was ultimately defeated when the… Read More
New Data Sheds Light on the Potential Power of Immigrant Voters
It is difficult to quantify the electoral power of immigrant voters. However, new data from DHS' Office of Immigration Statistics provides us with one way to gauge the electoral potential of the immigrant population. The numbers tell us how many Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) arrived in each county of the United States since 1985. Using this data, it is possible to compare the number of post-1985 LPRs in each county against the margin of victory in the 2008 McCain-Obama contest. This helps to pinpoint where immigrants could be a potent electoral force if they naturalized and voted en masse. Read More
Rubio Proposal Overlooks Obstacles Ahead For DREAMers
Though it has yet to be introduced in Congress, Senator Marco Rubio’s alternative to the DREAM Act received an appraisal from the Washington Post this week, which noted that it represents an effort to shake the hard-line anti-immigrant sentiment voiced by many leading conservative politicians. The editorial also noted, however, that the outlines of his proposal promote what’s tantamount to “permanent second-class status.” Read More
House VAWA Bill Threatens Protections for Immigrant Women and Children
This year, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is up for reauthorization. Last week, the Senate passed a reauthorization (S. 1925)—which provides protection to people who are the victims of domestic violence, rape, trafficking, sexual assault, stalking, and similar crimes—by a vote of 68-31. The House will takes up its own version next week, but in contrast to the Senate bill, which strengthened protections for immigrants, the House bill threatens to rollback protections for immigrant women and children who are victims of abuse. Read More
Study Shows Self-Deportation is Irrational Behavior and a False Premise
Proponents of “attrition through enforcement” would have you believe that, given the right conditions, unauthorized immigrants will choose to leave the U.S. and return to their home countries. The Myth of Self Deportation, by Alexandra Filindra, questions the assumptions behind the attrition strategy and concludes that self-deportation is not rational because unauthorized immigrants have invested too much in the U.S. to return home. Read More
SB1070 Author Shares Fears About America Becoming a “Minority, Majority” Nation
On the same day the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona v. United States the Washington Post published an article featuring Michael Hethmon, general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute. Hethmon is the lesser-known legal mind behind SB1070, and a variety of other anti-immigrant measures. His legal counterpart, Kris Kobach tends to get the spotlight; however Hethmon didn’t shy away from the Washington Post this week and was frank about his views on the real issues underlying SB1070. Read More
Nebraska Upholds Bill that Provides Prenatal Care to Undocumented Women
In a move that brought together an unusual group of allies, Nebraska’s Republican-controlled legislature recently upheld a bill that allows undocumented pregnant women to access state-funded prenatal care, overriding a veto by Republican Governor Dave Heineman. Nebraska Right to Life, Nebraska Catholic Conference, Planned Parenthood, and Nebraska Appleseed actually came together to support LB599, a bill the governor worked hard to kill. Why would Gov. Heineman, a man who describes himself as the one of the most pro life governors in America, oppose a bill that helps protect unborn children? Because, as the New York Times put it, he believes “government-financed health care for poor women is an acceptable thing, unless the women were in violation of immigration laws, in which case it was a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars.” Read More
Report Brings Border Patrol Abuses to Light in Washington State
The borderlands of the southwestern United States are not the only place where immigration enforcement tramples upon the most basic of civil and human rights. Many communities along the northern border are also subject to such abuses, as detailed in a recent report from OneAmerica and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. The report, entitled The Growing Human Rights Crisis Along Washington’s Northern Border, is based on a year’s worth of interviews and observations in border communities in Washington State. This investigation found that Border Patrol agents, often acting in collaboration with local police, repeatedly harass and abuse immigrants, as well as native-born U.S. citizens perceived to look or sound like immigrants. Read More
Young, Professional DREAMers Deserve Recognition
Earlier this week, numerous media outlets covered the story of Jose Godinez-Sampiero, a DREAM Act-eligible law school graduate whose application for a law license is currently pending before the Florida Supreme Court. Similar stories are playing out in California and New York, as young people brought to this country as children are now law school graduates, trying to make use of their professional degrees. The problem isn’t just for young lawyers, however, but is faced by many DREAMers, such as Dulce Matuz, an engineer turned DREAM Act advocate, who made Time Magazine’s Top 100 list this week. Read More
FAIR’s Economic Analysis of HB56 Ignores Reality in Alabama
While the original sponsors of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant bill HB56 have acknowledged that the law is deeply flawed, as evidenced by a new bill to modify some of the harsher provisions, the restrictionist stalwarts at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) want Alabamians to remember what it has supposedly done for the state. In a recent article, FAIR continues to make the unsubstantiated claim that HB56 is exactly what Alabama’s economy and workers need. It does this by using its trademark technique of pitting Alabama’s native-born workers against immigrants and their children, many of whom are U.S. citizens. Read More
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